Talking Teal Season

By Wyatt Lowder

Thankfully the crew of degenerates with DFH were willing to throw a bone and asked

me to throw some more words on paper for you all. Let’s get one thing straight, if you’re

reading this and are hoping you’ll take something intelligent from it, it probably won’t

happen. Check out some media about duck hunting that has nothing to do with the

name Wyatt Lowder. However, if you’re ready to hear what I’ve got to say about hunting

some early season teal, and some tips I’ve started to put in place for my opening days

of big duck season to be successful, stick around.

Let’s kick this off with some early teal season strategies since that is our first

opportunity to harvest some ducks. Indiana early teal starts here soon, and my first tip

for all hunting opportunities is to scout your butt off. I’ve seen these pesky blue wings

sit in a spot the whole week before the opener, and then get up and leave the night

before the season. The weather plays a huge part in these little bird’s migration patterns. If

you’ve got a couple of nights of weather in the 40s-50s, you might need to find a new

spot come opener. Secondly, the more spinning wing decoys you have, the better. That

doesn’t mean, go through out 12 mojos, but 2-4 will be a perfect number for your hunts.

And don’t be afraid to use what you’ve already got. Anyone with three 30-dollar dove

mojo’s can fool them teal. Lastly, if you’ve already got a couple dozen mallard decoys,

use them. You don’t need to go out and buy 3 dozen teal decoys, it definitely doesn’t

hurt, but since all these birds are in their summer plumage you’re gonna be just fine

running all your hen mallard decoys instead. Teal season can be some of the most fun

duck hunting you have during the year, the buzz of those rockets over the decoys is

addicting, hopefully you can take some of those tips and get out there and harvest some

of the best-tasting ducks.

Now let’s try and get some tips out there for the big show. As cool as it is to have some

teal buzz around your face at Mach Jesus, we all want some feet-down mallards on

opening day. My first tip to increase your success is to deal with us privileged private

land hunters. If you’ve got landowner permission, or own your own land, make sure

you build your blinds at least 2 weeks in advance. I personally like building them about a

month in advance, however, two weeks is plenty of time. This gives the birds that are

hitting your spot plenty of time to get used to things not quite looking “natural”. Another

tip my crew has started to use is no more than 2 dozen decoys. These birds are pretty

dumb at the beginning of the season. Don’t throw the whole kitchen sink at them in the

beginning. Save your 7 dozen decoy duck spread for January. Another thing we’ve

noticed is you’ll have better success with light calling. A couple of feeder chuckles and

light quacks go a very long way. With that being said, you’re also going to have to read

the birds. If it seems like they want to hear that nasty hen barking at them, let it rip. At

the end of the day, none of these tips is the absolute key to having a successful hunt,

but they are trends we have noticed to be more successful on the opener.

I hope you degens can take something away from my rambling. If you’re thinking

about getting into waterfowl hunting, you should do it! Just make sure to stay away from

my spots. Thanks for reading, keep being degenerate.